Apple on Monday asked a U.S. judge for a preliminary injunction barring two former employees and OpenAI from accessing, acquiring, using or disclosing alleged confidential information as it moves ahead with its trade secrets case. Apple last month sued OpenAI and the two former employees, both now working for OpenAI, alleging misappropriation of its trade secrets to benefit the ChatGPT-owner’s foray into consumer hardware, a dramatic escalation of already simmering tension between the two companies. Related: Apple Suing OpenAI, Two Former Employees for Trade Secrets TheftIt asked the judge to order the two former Apple employees named in the lawsuit, Chang Liu and Tang Yew Tan, to sit for depositions, along with OpenAI employee Yu-Ting Peng and an unnamed OpenAI employee who previously worked at Apple. “Apple will be irreparably harmed absent a preliminary injunction,” it said in a filing. “Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction is both based on false information and completely unnecessary because we do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets,” OpenAI said in a blogpost late on Monday.